CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++cmake
Martin Vymazal
Martin Vymazal

Reputation: 303

C++ and CMake: configure a template class from file

I have a C++ 'library' which consists of a set of reusable classes which are templated (i.e. all source code is in header files) and a set of driver files. Each driver source file includes some (but not necessarily all) headers with class templates.

It would be nice if I could instantiate these class templates in each driver file with specific template parameters (known at compile time) and then automate the initialization of objects with the instantiated type by reading configuration files (this would help me remove some boilerplate code). These configuration files would be read upon object construction.

Suppose the config files would be bundled with the source code. Where should they be placed when drivers are compiled so that each class can locate its config files? I am using CMake to build the code.

Since reusable code is not compiled into a library, I can't place the config files in the same location as the library. I'm not even sure whether that would be a good idea actually.

One solution would be to specify a folder with config files as a CMake variable and hardcode this value in the source code of every configurable class. Is there a better way of doing this? Perhaps there's a standard CMake-style way of handling the problem?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1084

Answers (1)

peteigel
peteigel

Reputation: 373

I would consider doing this with good 'ol macros. You can use target_compile_definitions() to define macros in your source code. Your config files could then be CMake files themselves, loaded with include(). Then in your source files, you could do an explicit template specialization or a typedef to MyTemplateClass<TEMPLATE_ARG_MACRO_1, TEMPLATE_ARG_MACRO_2>.

Hopefully that makes some sense.

Upvotes: 1

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